Peering into the Dark
The Deficiency of the Qur'an as an Historical Source
We can be certain about very little when it comes to the early history of Islam. Many people, including some non-Muslims, will immediately protest at a statement like this by pointing to the Qur'an as a reliably historical source. In fact, many people assume that they can, should they be so inclined, pick up the Qur'an and learn all they need to know about the early history of Islam. This is simply not the case.
The Qur'an is remarkably de-contextualized. Very few individuals, place names, or historical events are mentioned. For example, the word Mecca occurs exactly once in the Qur'an (Qur'an 48:24) and the name Muhammad, as opposed to indirect references, a mere three times (Qur'an 33:40, 47:2, and 48:29). When you look up these references, it quickly becomes clear that they all make general statements and are of no use in terms of discovering the true history of either Mecca or Muhammad. The Qur'an could in a sense have been written at any time or any place for all the historical information that it provides.
The extent to which the Qur'an is deficient in geographical and historical references is quite staggering. It contains just shy of 150,000 words in Arabic. Only 65 of these words are references to specific locations. The figure of 65 is further reduced when we consider that several of these markers occur more than once and are, therefore, counted several times within the total. In fact, there are only 9 unique location references within the entire book. To put it in another way, you must read on average 2,229 words in the Qur'an before encountering a reference to a location.
A useful point of comparison is the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in the Christian New Testament, all of which contain about ten times more location references than the Qur'an, with the Gospel of Mark referencing a location on average once every 200 words.
Early Muslim scholars tried to solve the problem of the de-contextualized nature of the Qur'an by writing voluminously on the supposed origins of every chapter in the book. This so-called 'Occasions of Revelation' (Asbāb al-nuzūl) literature divides the chapters of the Qur'an into different periods: Early Meccan, Intermediate Meccan, Late Meccan, and Medinan. These divisions correspond to the biography of Muhammad as it is traditionally presented.
The main problem with the 'Occasions of Revelation' literature (a problem we will encounter again and again during any discussion of Islamic historical sources) is that all attempts to provide context for the Qur'an were written generations after the book was supposedly revealed. They are therefore open to the charge of being back-projections from another place and time (200 years into the future, in fact) to the time of the prophet. The suspicion that this is what happened is further confirmed by the fact that there are often several precisely contradictory contexts provided in different books. Without reliable contemporary eyewitness testimony or documents, it is impossible to choose between these different versions of events.
For much more about the the questions that can be asked about the early history of Islam, please see my book ‘The Mecca Mystery - Probing the Black Hole at the Heart of Muslim history’. Please also consider supporting my work by taking out a paid subscription (link below)
Kind regards,
Peter
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